The widespread popularity of electronic mail and the Internet has resulted in a greater risk of a user's computer being infected by a computer virus or other malicious software, particularly in the enterprise environment. Computer virus, worm or spyware infection, though, reduces productivity and causes great damage. A security software policy can be implemented by requiring all users to install security software. Many users, however, might not install the security software on their personal computers, as some believe the security software will be detrimental to computer performance or may have driver incompatibility. Some personal computers do not follow a company's internal policy by not installing P2P software or by not applying software patches from Microsoft Corporation.
Another method of security policy enforcement is to require all users to install security software when logging on to a computer network of a particular enterprise. This method might be enforceable, but can suffer if a verification method is not provided to detect continued use of the security software. An enterprise can also utilize a probe application that periodically determines if all the computers already connected to an enterprise network have antivirus software installed. If any connected computer does not have antivirus software installed, the probe application executes an installation program to install security software on the detected computers. This method provides a greater degree of enforceability but can be unworkable as large enterprises typically have hundreds if not thousands of network users. Use of the probe application is time consuming and consumes network resources. Moreover, the execution and maintenance of the probe program may present additional problems.
Problems also arise in an enterprise that implements an intranet; intranet users and their status cannot be strictly controlled. This loosely-controlled environment provides an opportunity for computer viruses and other malicious software to infect the Intranet. Preferably, all computers connected to an Intranet should have security software installed to prevent computer virus infection and security breaches.
Enforcement of a security policy can be extremely important within an enterprise in making the network environment more secure. Such a policy can include taking steps like installing a software security patch, updating a virus pattern, etc. In some cases though, end users have difficulties in determining exactly what a policy is and implementing it themselves on their own computer. Also, some end users will not implement a particular policy and enforcement can be difficult. Further, security software implementation has been traditionally regarded as an internal enterprise task. Existing techniques, though, cannot adequately accomplish enforcement of a security software policy within an enterprise, even though more and more enterprises regard security software installation as a standard procedure.
A system and technique is desirable that would provide for simple enforcement of a network antivirus security policy.